Okay, I’m not going to sit here and write this expecting everyone to dig this. Because most people won’t. Drone music is something that only certain people can bear to listen to, it’s the fifty mile uphill marathon of the music world. Listening to drone music takes a certain level of active effort on the listener’s part: you bear the repetition, the dissonances, the long running times, and the ear-piercing feedback anxiously waiting for the cathartic moment where it all comes together into beautiful melody. The climactic release of all the tension that has been built up.

It’s also kind of like sex.
I’ve been slowly moving my way through more and more drone-based music, starting with some of the bigger doom/ stoner bands (Sleep, Goatsnake, Unearthly Trance) and “post-” bands (Mono, World’s End Girlfriend, Isis) who are no stranger to incorporating drone elements into their sound, then moving on to things like Sunn o))) and Boris. Most recently, I’ve been diving into Boris’ longer drone works, Flood and Boris at Last- Feedbacker.

Feedbacker is in many ways an evolution of Boris’ long-form drone excursions, starting with their first release, Absolutego, delivering a suite of meditative music through a series of movements. Feedbacker is more akin it its predecessor, Flood in that it utilizes repetitive melodies, walls of noise and feedback loops, as well as more traditional segments with vocals. Feedbacker makes much better use of structure and variation than any of Boris’ drone experiments, which makes for a much more rewarding listening experience, and showcases the band’s strength in locking into a groove and rocking out “traditionally” as well as abstractly.

While this album has some of the most structured and catchy parts of any in Boris’ drone catalog, it is not without it’s difficulties: part one is a noisy, feedback-laden riff with very little variation for the better part of its 9:38 length, and part 4 is almost exclusively feedback. This only serves to build into the final part, which makes the previous ten minutes wholly worth it.

In some ways this album, along with Sunn o)))’s Monoliths and Dimensions, is a good early step for someone trying to get into drone music due to its high rewarding nature. It is by no means easy or passive listening, but I honestly can’t recommend this album enough.

To get a taste, check out Part 3 below, but this album is best experienced listening straight through and through headphones.